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How to Give Power of Attorney

Power of attorney is mainly a legal document which allows the other person to act for you, a legal relationship is being created between the actual owner and the other person, whereas the owner acts like a principal and the person appointed by you to whom you want to be the controller on your behalf is known as agent.

The power of attorney describes the powers which you give to your attorney. It could be limited or broad. It’s just as your agent can act on your behalf and can exercise those powers which could be earlier done by yourself. Not every power of attorney are created equal, each type is there that through which specified part you want your attorney to deal with is available, at a different level of control. The attorney could gain control over the principal’s health and welfare issues or property and financial matters.

Power of Attorney

It could be either restricted by giving your agent a set of responsibilities only in certain circumstances. There are certain ways through which one can give their power to another for gaining the control over the matters which they can’t fix by their own. It is obvious that the principal would hand over the power of attorney to the person he wants to pick up and has full faith over his agent, that his powers would not be misused and the agent work for the betterment of the principal. There various methods through which the power of attorney could be handed over to the other person:

1 – The first thing to do, before you can give away your power of attorney is to find a better agent to whom you can transfer your power and that person could take actions on your behalf. You can prefer your agent to be your family member, long time friend, or you can go up for choosing from your lawyers, doctors. On whom you trust and this person should be above eighteen years of old.

2 – Many power of attorney are durable. Durable means the agent would still be effective even if the principal had become mentally incapacitated, i.e. the power that has been transferred to the agent will be effective, even if the principal becomes or is unable to give instructions to his agent. Without these your agent would not be able to use power of attorney, when the principal is unable to manage his own affairs. The power is as soon as activated when it witnesses by the two. Principal may tell his agent and the witnesses not to use the power of attorney until and unless when, he is unable to act for himself, but as soon as the agent who receives the power of attorney could enjoy the power.

3 – General power of attorney provides the agent with full and broad power of the organization, so that he could act on the behalf the principal. This power gives the agent to handle the issues of the principal like, financial and business transaction, buying health insurance, claims to be settled down. General power of attorney is mainly adopted by the principal to its agent, when the principal is out of the country and someone is needed to hand over the certain issues and also when the principal is mentally and physically incapable to manage his issues.

4 – Special power of attorney is that kind of agreement in which principal can decide what powers are to be granted to the agent. Mainly this happens when the principal is not able to manage specify work area or due to his bad health. The agent can manage matters like, managing real estate, collecting debts, handling business transaction.

5 – The principal can revoke the power of attorney, if he has not given the attorney to anyone, you can simply destroy the document. The agent could not use the power of attorney unless he has the copy of the attorney or a copy of the attorney is being transferred in to banks, financial institutions, so that they could think that you want your agent to take actions on your behalf.

6 – The principal can appoint multiple agents and also can decide whether these agents have to work jointly or they can utilize their powers separately. Multiple agents can result in sound decisions, acting as checks and balances for each other. If you have only one agents, always keep in mind for the backup, as the agent can fall ill, face accidents, or unable to serve when the time comes. Successor agent takes the control of the power of attorney from original agent.

Conclusion – Trust is a key factor when the principal is choosing his or her agent to grant the power of attorney. For giving the power of attorney the agent should watch out for the principal’s best interest, respect the wishes of his principal and won’t misuse the power granted to him. It is important for the agents to keep up all the transaction records done on the behalf of his principal and provide him with latest updates.